The first Tarkovsky film i ever saw, back in 1986 at The Arnolfini in Bristol. I went and watched it again a week later i was so impressed. You’ve got an old intellectual with his young son planting a small tree in a barren landscape. He saying things to his Little Man” like: “If everyday, [...]
A ponderous film. Tarkovsky gives plenty of ponder time. Cus there’s never very much plot or action-narrative going on. Tarkovsky’s beginnings are always visually compelling: here we start with greening and blueing nature, the earth exhaling mists, dandelions puffing off white heads, cuckoos, saturations of wateriness, miracle-seeming rain through sun, horses, humming bees; it all [...]
Black dogs lurching about, a recurring motif in Tarkovsky. Part of the Tarkovsky trademark. As is wateriness. Wetness. When you watch a Tarkovsky film you feel like you ought to be under an umbrella. Or maybe wearing a black raincoat, zipped right up, hood pulled right over. You won’t want to go anywhere cus it’s [...]
I often only watch Tarkovsky films for 20 minutes or so. Like i might be kneeling down in church at the altar. Sometimes my soul resists the readiness to be prayerful that these films demand. The opening scenes of this film take you beautifully into Church Tarkovsky. A VW beettle loops around in the mist. [...]
One of the great (est) films. Critics revere it (“solemn, magnificent, astounding”) (But do many of them actually like it? Hmm, i wonder) I found it hard work (as in laborious). Was whizzing thro with finger on fast forward so as to get the going over and working done with. The heavy density, weightiness, opaque [...]
Think it’s about time i tackled old Andrei, made my ascent up Mount Tarkovsky. And this film – his first – is probably the least difficult one to climb; there’s a relatively coherent narrative, and not arduously long. Opening with cuckoo-cooing, butterflies, a meadow, a sandy beach. Ivan’s Childhood was idyllic when mama was around. [...]
Been watching alot of French films in the last couple of months. In fact I’ve watched by far more films from France (26) than any other nation – and that includes England (9) and the US (6) In fact I’ve not – deliberately – watched an American film since Goodfellas back in June. I’ve wanted [...]
